Tuesday, June 23, 2009

When Good Parenting Goes Wrong Part 3

Grant has a toy school bus that he likes to fill with toys (especially Hot Wheels) and push around. It's not so much that he likes to pretend things are riding the bus, it's more of the Hunt-Gather-Push-them-all-around thing that two-year-olds like to do.

This is one of the difficulties with twins. When you have two little Hunter-Gatherers there is competition as to which little Hunter-Gatherer will be able to Gather the most.

We recently had another one of those days. Grant had a bus full of stuff, the glorious stuff that looks like a jumble of garbage to you and me, but are the treasured playthings of little boys. And Ben wanted it. I was feeding Drew when I heard Grant scream say, "No, Bens! No take da (mumble-yelling) from Grant!"

I turned and found Ben with a very guilty face and a fistful of cars. I said to Ben, "You do not take your brother's things. Go put everything back that you took."

Ben walked over to the bus, then stopped and turned to look at me quizzically. I encouraged him, being the positive, supporting parent. "Ben, put it back in the bus."

So, just like his Mama told him to, he leaned over the bus and spit a mouthful of chewed up cracker into Grant's school bus. And then, still clutching the cars that he apparently had had the whole time, he wiped his mouth and walked away.

Grant was initially excited that his cracker had been returned, until he reached for it and found a soggy mess spit all over his toys and his Ted. And then he cried.

Next time I'm gonna ask some questions first. And look more closely at guilty faces to see if they include chipmunk cheeks and cracker-crumbly lips.

7 comments:

Snow Mommy said...

You tell the story so well, I can just see their faces!

DJan said...

Is it okay to laugh out loud? Yes? Well, then: bwahahahaha!

Paging Doctor Mommy said...

OMG that is hilarious!

The Campbell Family said...

Kudos to Ben for doing what you told him to!!!

CulyQFun said...

OMG that is sooo funny!

Love the ending - how you'll ask more questions next time. We live & learn.

Amy Parsons said...

Those boys crack me up .... your stories crack me up even more!

Natalie said...

HAHAHAHAHAHA That sounds just like something Daniel would do. That is too funny!